


Faded

by 9r7g5h



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-26
Updated: 2013-01-26
Packaged: 2017-11-27 00:12:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/655912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/9r7g5h/pseuds/9r7g5h
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because it refused to fade on its own, she forced it to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faded

For a long, long time, Katara tried to make herself forget about Zuko.

That part of her life was over, she would tell herself harshly whenever thoughts of the Fire Lord tried to slip past her guards, tried to wriggle and claw their way to the front of her mind. She was married to the Avatar, the one the fortune teller had told her long ago was her destiny, and she was happy. She had three wonderful children, all Airbender, and the world was at peace. What more could she want?

Every time she saw him, her heart answered that question for her.

She loved Zuko, and to pretend otherwise consisted of perhaps the worse pain she had ever had the displeasure of feeling. So, instead, she tried to pretend that the love she felt for him was that of a friend, and when she was alone she just tried to forget. And, for the most part at least, she seemed to succeed. She was content, happy even, with her life as the wife of the Avatar, keeping a close eye on her children while teaching waterbenders how to fight and heal. She loved Aang with as much of her heart as she could, and never once did she see fit to lie to him. Had he of asked, she would have told him the truth, would have told him that he also shared room in her heart with another, but thankfully the thought never once crossed his mind.

She was the best wife that she could be, and as time went on, it because easier to do so.

As time continued to flow, she became better at hiding the way her heart seemed to leap within her chest at the sight of his face, holding back the blush that almost inevitably formed around him. As time continued on, she was able to hold back the wandering eyes that always seemed to seek him out, and was able to force his name to become foreign on her tongue. When Aang talked about his travels during the few times he was home with her, she refrained from asking directly about him, instead keeping her mind focused more on everything else that was happening within the world. Whenever her presence was not needed at the palace, she refrained from leaving her happy little city and meeting him face to face.

Eventually, as time went on, she gained the ability to hide, even from herself, exactly what her heart wished the most.

By the time Aang had passed on, allowing the Avatar spirit to become reborn in a young, new body, it had been years since she had given the Fire Lord a second thought, her mind instead focused on the many important details of her own life that needed to be dealt with. With diseases and famine running rampant, combined with the loss of the only person who could beseech the spirits on the mortals behalf gone, it took all her attention and efforts to keep the people she cared about safe and calm. With this in mind, there was no time to worry about a crush from the past that had never faded on its own.

She had forced it from her mind herself, and now there was no time to regret the choices she had made.


End file.
